‘NOT ALL MOTORISTS ARE CROOKS, BUT ALL CROOKS ARE MOTORISTS’

Drug traffickers and drug users usually violate one or more traffic laws every time they get behind the wheel of a car and that is why they are often caught by the police.

100 ARRESTED IN HIGHWAY DRUG CRACKDOWN AFTER 900 PULLED OVER FOR “ALLEGED TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS”
By Richard Connelly

Houston Press Hair Balls
April 16, 2012

Memo to those involved in the drug trade: Follow traffic rules, make sure your car's registration and inspection are current, and don't have any busted taillights.

That's the lesson that might be learned from the recent crackdown led by the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

HCSO says it pulled over 900 cars "for alleged traffic violations" over two days last week and wound up arresting 100 people on drug charges.

The operation targeted U.S. 90 and Interstate 10 between Beltway 8 East and the Harris County line.

There;s nothing more vague in a cop's probable-cause notebook than "alleged traffic violations" -- there's no telling how much "weaving" a suspect car needed to do before the party lights came on -- but HCSO and DPS were happy with the results.

"It's important to remind those in the trafficking business that we are in the trafficking disruption business," Sheriff Adrian Garcia said.

"Not all motorists are crooks, but all crooks are motorists,'' DPS Capt. Derek Rodriguez said.

Besides arresting people, officers also confiscated "cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines, prescription drugs and weapons," HCSO said.

Officials said the operation "focused on highways where smugglers can easily blend in with other traffic," which is why River Oaks Boulevard [in Houston’s wealthiest neighborhood] wasn't targeted, we guess.

Similar operations are planned for the future, officials say.